JOURNAL REVIEW : Curriculum Development in The Post Modern Era

Review : Curriculum Development in The Post Modern Era, a book by Patrick Slattery published by Routledge in 2006.

Reviewed by Huldromi

IAIN Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin BANTEN

Banten – Indonesia

The curriculum is a concept that has time to grow. It cannot be denied that the development of the curriculum in every era has always influenced by the criticisms made ​​in good quality curriculum from time to time. This perspective is becoming grip the teachers to continue to develop the curriculum for more better. A book by Patrick Slattery discussed with more details on curriculum development in the postmodern era.

This book consist of three parts and twelve chapters, and all of the discourse about curriculum such as curriculum development as a field study, complicated conversation in contemporary curriculum development and curriculum development in the postmodern era. Each part has a corresponding discussion by limiting the scope.

The first chapter of this book is a general overview of the curriculum development in the postmodern era, including the introduction of curriculum development, reconceptualization and postmodernity. This section gives us some knowledge about the concept of curriculum development and its and the definition of postmodernity.

Chapter 2 describes historical perspectives on the curriculum as a field of study. So, what is history?  Is it the ordered description of past events?  How certain can we be about this narration?  How complete is this narration?  Do we know what we do not know about the past? How does the present relate to the past?  Is the past “past” or does it somehow effect the present? How and how much is the present dependent on the past.  To give a silly example consider the following.  Why do the Indians drive on the left side of the road?  Well, the Indians do so because the British do so and India was a British colony. So far, so good, but …. Why do the British ride on the left side of the road?  Well that is because two gentleman who met on the road on horse could thus conveniently shake their right hands. Fine, but why would they shake their right hands and not their left ones? We can see that no matter which question eventually we have to admit that we do not know the real why.  At best we can as a spider move along its web of cause/effect nodes until we reach a dead end.

So far we have looked at history from a perspective that I will call “post-positivist.”  We assume that all events are placed along a chain (web) of cause/effect, but we acknowledge our imperfect knowledge and thus make probabilistic statements.

A postmodern view of history will go beyond the acceptance of probabilities rather than certainties.  A postmodern view will readily accept that even probabilities are illusory. Such a view will go past the understanding of history as a complex of events related by cause/effect.  I think that a probabilistic understanding of history is fallacious and will give us wrong answers.  With the scientific method we can, and should, use probabilities to make predictions.  However, we can not turn around the arrow of time.  Before an event happens its probability is between zero and one.  However, once it happens it probability is 1.  So, it really does not matter how unlikely an event is, if it did happen it did happen.   What is the probability that a flagellate protozoan would give rise through biological evolution to an eagle?  Minuscule at best.  However, it would be silly to conclude that eagles did not descend from unicellular animals based on a probabilistic reasoning.

Chapter 3 told us about “The Reconceptualization of Curriculum Studies from 1973 to 2006”. This section told the readers the history of curriculum in the context of their own autobiography and life narratives in order to advance an experiential and participatory perspective on education, it means that according to the authors’ experience in following the history of curriculum development itself.

Chapter 4 ” Postmodern Schooling, Curriculum, and the Theological Text” this chapter talks about the dimensions of human life, such as, religion, spirituality and culture that inform or are informed by curriculum study. Therefore the curriculum study actually gives the influence of human life either directly or indirectly.

Chapter 5 emphasizes that the curriculum development in the postmodern era as hermeneutics, it means an approach to understanding the meaning of texts, language, law, historical artifact and pedagogy. The interpretation of them appears on the curriculum development to make more clear. Slattery quotes Howard (1982) who defines hermeneutics as “the art of interpretation.” He himself defines is as an “investigation into the ambiguous nature of being and knowledge” (p. 116).  The author also points to the book “Dialogue and Deconstruction” by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida (1989).

Chapter 6 Gender, Sexuality, Race, and Ethnicity in a Multicultural and Diverse Milieu” and “The Ruby Bridges Story” this section talk about the humanity. The issues of humanity in modern era might be emerging. Because of an imbalance of harmonization among people.

Chapter 7 “Postmodern Philosophies in Curriculum Studies” this section gives us some comprehension, how to take a good decision in every situation. As a teacher taking a decision is commonly encountered in the learning process. In this case as deciding what methods will be used in teaching and many others.

Chapter 8 “Curriculum for Interdependence and Ecological Sustainability” shows that the focus of postmodern curriculum. Slattery states that ecological sustainability and holistic models of teaching are the primary focus of the postmodern era.

Chapter 9, "utopian vision, Democracy, and the Egalitarian Ideal" emphasize another focus in the curriculum of the postmodern era namely politics and feminist. Talk about politics in the postmodern era that has to do with the curriculum. Such as, communism and fascism. Chapter 10, "Aesthetic Inquiry, Arts-Based Research, and Proleptic Moment" This section talks about the place of art in the curriculum, and how to bring the arts in education.

Chapter 11 “Time and Complexity” this time the author told us about how to manage a time. It means that time is very important in learning and teaching process. Time management must be one of skill that teacher have. That’s why the lesson plan is needed for the teachers.